I am the longtime Managing Editor at HotHardware.com. I am also a freelance writer whose work has been published worldwide, in a number of PC and tech-related print publications. I have been a computing and technology buff since my early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the C64 some 30 years ago, I was interested in electricity and electronics, and still have the modified AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once I got my hands on my first Commodore 64, however, computing became my passion. Throughout my academic and professional lives, I have explored virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high-end, multi-core servers. Over the years, I have worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, quality assurance testing, and technical writing.

There has been a lot of discussion lately about net neutrality, the state of broadband in the U.S., and dubious deals between large Internet Service Providers and providers of on-demand video streaming—I’m talking about you ComcastComcast and NetflixNetflix. How it all shakes out in the long terms is still anyone’s guess, but in the meantime, Google has just released a new tool for YouTube that makes it incredibly easy for anyone to determine if their ISP is up to snuff.

Google’s Video Quality Report tool (available here) detects your location and ISP and displays a graph that shows what percentage of videos streamed properly in high or standard definition, and at what times the network was most congested, using daily video activity averages over the last 30 days. In a blog post that explains how to find and use the new tool, Google says, “Starting today, if you’re in the U.S., you can use the Google Video Quality Report to see the level of video quality your Internet service provider can play YouTube. If you’re regularly seeing videos buffer, this report can give you a better idea of why, as well as tips to make YouTube play better. You can also see the video quality other ISPs in your area are delivering…” It’s that last part there that’s interesting, don’t you think?

When you attempt to stream a video from a site like YouTube, Google receives your request and then their network/servers send the data to your ISP. It is the ISP’s job to ultimately accept and route the data from Google/YouTube (or any other provider for that matter) to your device or PC.

Google’s Video Quality Report In Action.

For the video to playback with acceptable quality, the connection must offer relatively low latency and enough bandwidth to stream all of the data in the video feed. If your ISP isn’t up to par, video quality will suffer and you’ll see video artifacts (like excessive blocking or funky colors), dropped frames, or long pauses and buffer times.

There are a myriad of things that can affect video streaming quality as well. Congestion in your ISP’s network, the size of the pipe connected to your home (a.k.a. the bandwidth rating of your particular broadband plan), the quality of your Wi-Fi connection if your devices are connected wirelessly, and the number of devices or computers sharing the connection simultaneously, among many other things. To help users determine if a video streaming problem is being caused by their ISP, Google’s tool also has a number of troubleshooting tips available in addition to an interactive site that explains how video gets from YouTube to your device, through Google’s and your ISP’s network.

All in all, the tool and all of the data it provides are fairly simple. But one particular feature should give ISPs cause for concern: Google’s Video Quality Report also allows users to compare their connection to others available in the same area. If a user finds their connection isn’t cutting it, a click of a button just below the graph will show them how other providers perform. It’s a simple thing, but you can bet that some users will switch providers if they know someone else in the area can serve them better, and I’m glad a company as large and influential as Google made a tool like this available.

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